Day 2 of Event #72: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed saw the field narrowed down from 123 to the final 15. Leading the charge heading towards the final day is Ryan Leng with the likes of Day 1 chipleader Jordan Polk, Yuval Bronshtein and Kevin Iacofano giving chase.

Day 3 Seat Draw and Chip Counts

Room

Table

Seat

Player Name

Country

Chip Count

Big Blinds

Brasilia

45

1

Takashi Ogura

Japan

40,000

4

Brasilia

45

2

Fernando Brito

Brazil

478,000

48

Brasilia

45

3

Dan Matsuzuki

United States

320,000

32

Brasilia

45

4

Jonathan Bryan

United States

154,000

15

Brasilia

45

5

Samuel Welbourne

United Kingdom

370,000

37

Brasilia

45

6

Ryan Leng

United States

813,000

81

Brasilia

45

7

Michael Rocco

United States

55,000

6

Brasilia

45

8

Jerome Bradpiece

United Kingdom

436,000

44

Brasilia

60

1

Jesse Vilchez

United States

561,000

56

Brasilia

60

2

Empty

Brasilia

60

3

Alexander Ziskin

United States

244,000

24

Brasilia

60

4

Yuval Bronshtein

Israel

511,000

51

Brasilia

60

5

Jordan Polk

United States

479,000

48

Brasilia

60

6

Kevin Iacofano

United States

389,000

39

Brasilia

60

7

Thomas Kim

United States

230,000

23

Brasilia

60

8

Charalampos Lappas

Greece

224,000

22

The returning players entered Day 2 just 16 spots from the money and would get down to bubble within the first level. Hand-for-hand play would last about an hour though before Matthew Kelly would be eliminated in 108th place. Kelly was in the big blind, moving all in for his last 12,300 over an early raise to 2,500 from Polk. In the thrill of the moment, Kelly accidentally flipped over his hand, showing pocket kings. Polk was actually not paying attention but would eventually be given the information. Polk still tanked for a while and liked his odds enough with ace-eight of spades. Polk called and the board delivered two aces, leaving Kelly empty-handed.

There was a pile of two-time bracelet winners to leave with some consolation on Day 2 as Mark Radoja (101st), Jason DeWitt (90th), Cliff Josephy (72nd), Steve Sung (65th), Steve Zolotow (61st), and Eric Baldwin (57th) all failed to find a bag. The 2005 WOOP Main Event champion, Joe Hachem, also saw his deep run come to an end falling in 58th.

Poker's all-time leading money earner, Daniel Negreanu, was poised to make yet another deep run this series. Negreanu came into the day with just 22 big blinds but quickly raked in pot after pot and soon after found himself among the top stacks in the room. Negreanu had start-of-day chipleader, Polk, on his left the entire day until Negreanu picked up ace-king and ran into the Polk's pocket aces in a sizeable pot to bust in 29th place.

One of the last players to register late on Day 1, Rainer Kempe, managed to slide into the money and even climbed a ladder before busting in 96th place. Justin Liberto, who joined Kempe at the end of the reg line made an even better run and more impressively, did it while multi-tabling the Little One for One Drop. Liberto bagged a final 14 stack in the Little One heading to Day 4 but sadly was eliminated in the mixed event in the penultimate level of the night for a 21st place score.

Leng has been near the top of the counts for much of the event thus far rising to the top early on Day 1 and maintaining the position throughout play on both days. Leng took down a big pot in the final level on Day 2 from Takashi Ogura. Leng flopped a king-high flush and got two big bets paid out on the turn and river before Ogura mucked the river. Leng bagged the top stack after ten levels of play and will return with 813,000 on Day 3.

From cutoff, Ryan Leng opened to 19,000 and Takashi Ogura defended his big blind. Leng checked back on the and Ogura led out 27,000 when the turn arrived. Leng cut out a raise of 66,000 and Ogura spent two minutes before calling.

The river card was the and Ogura checked to Leng who placed in a 96,000-bet. Ogura tossed in one chip to make the call and Leng showed him for a flopped king-high flush. Ogura conceded a huge portion of his stack and dropped to 65,000.